Companions
by sein Henker
Summary: Universe Alteration where the trans-dimensional canon works and Rose comes back during season three. Rose and Martha bond.


Title: Companions  
Summary: Universe Alteration where the trans-dimensional canon works and Rose comes back during season three. Rose and Martha bond.  
Rating: T for sexual references  
Word Count: 1670  
Other Chapters: No.  
Disclaimer: The British Broadcasting Corporation owns Doctor Who and all related trademarks. I do not in any way profit from the use of these trademarks.  
Pairings: Doctor/Rose (romantic); Martha/Doctor (one-sided)  
Contains: Gratuitous Harry Potter. Angst. Hurt/Comfort.  
Warnings: No major warnings

Martha was sure she was dreaming, at first. She'd reached a point in her travels where she didn't think anything could surprise her any more, but a stranger in the TARDIS when Martha was sure they hadn't landed (The Doctor did not land smoothly; She couldn't have slept through it.) was something she hadn't quite been prepared for.

And there was the Doctor's smile. She'd never seen him smile that way before. It was breaking her heart.

The girl was smiling too. She had been before Martha walked in, anyway. The second she saw Martha, it froze.

"Who's she?" Rose asked.

The took his eyes off the girl for the first time since Martha had walked into the control room, and his smile fell.

"Uh, well—"

Somehow, Martha found her voice. "Martha Jones."

The Doctor looked back at the blonde girl and nodded. "My, uh, friend. Martha."

The girl took several steps back and pointed at the Doctor accusingly. "Did you Sarah Jane me?!" Martha flinched, even though the accusation hadn't been directed at her, and she felt her own composure breaking.

"Oh, is her name a verb now?"

"Doctor, I asked you a question!"

"Really, Rose? What does that even mean?"

"Oh," Martha said. They both looked back to her, and she looked Rose over once more and nodded, already feeling the tears building. "You're Rose. Right. So I'll just leave you two alone for a bit. Be in my room if you need me."

She turned and ran back into the corridor full of bedrooms before either of them could say anything, but as she was running back to her room, she heard Rose shout "Wait! I want to talk to you! —Doctor, just stay here!" and then there was the sound of frantic hands and feet on the metal rungs. Martha didn't stop running. The tears were already coming down, and the last person in the universe she wanted to talk to right now wasRose Tyler. She slammed her bedroom door behind her, threw herself onto her bed, and let her pillow catch her tears.

It wasn't twenty seconds before she heard knocks on the other doors in the hallway. "Are you in there?" Knock knock knock. "I don't know which door is yours!" Knock knock knock. "Look, I just want to talk to you!" The next set of knocks was actually on Martha's door.

"I don't really feel like talking right now!" Martha said quickly, before her voice broke. She sobbed hideously, and she was sure Rose must have heard.

"Can I just ask you one thing?" Rose said. To her credit, she didn't open Martha's door.

"What?"

"Did..." She took a deep breath and tried again. "Did the two of you...?"

"No," Martha said, taking deep breaths.

"Are you crying?"

"Look," Martha said, but she sobbed again before she could finish, and had to take several more deep breaths in order to go on, "He didn't do anything wrong..." She managed to bury the sob that almost came out there in a deep breath. "So just go back to him."

Martha needed to start packing, anyway. After all, Rose was back. Martha would be home by tea time. Travelling through time and space had been fun while it had lasted. Had she known that her last trip would be her last ever, she might have asked for something a bit more remarkable than a stop to J.K. Rowling's very last book-signing. It had been wonderful, but she also could have just gone when she was older, and would probably go again anyway. Oh well. At least she had a copy of every book J.K.R. Would ever write, and all the blue-rays. And Deathly Hallows was signed. She was already halfway through it.

"You're crying," Rose said. "... Can I come in?"

Martha didn't answer.

"... I'm coming in." Martha heard the handle turn and the door open, but she didn't turn around. She felt the weight on the bed behind her, and then a hand on her shoulder, and she tried desperately to compose herself. "What's wrong?"

Martha shook her head. "It's nothing." She wiped away her tears, took another deep breath, and turned around. "Look, it's brilliant that you're back. Really. And the Doctor has missed you so much and I've known him for a good year now and he's never looked twice at me, so just... go back to him. Tell him I'm packing."

Rose squinted at her. "What would you be packing for?"

Martha scoffed. "You're back. And you and he are clearly... Well, I don't imagine he's going to want me around any more, and I can't imagine whyyou would."

"Well, he's not just going to kick you out because I came back!" Rose said. "That wouldn't be fair. I wouldn't let him. And it wouldn't be the first time we've travelled with other people. We used to have this friend, Jack..."

Martha took another deep breath. "He's never mentioned anyone named Jack before."

"Yeah," Rose said, getting comfortable on the bed, "He doesn't talk about any of his old friends much, does he? I'm surprised you know who I am."

Martha laughed darkly and shook his head. "He hardly ever shuts up about you. But what about Jack? What happened to him?"

"Don't know," Rose said, but she looked away as she said it. Martha wasn't quite convinced she was telling the truth

"That's reassuring. Do you two just ditch your third wheels when you get bored of us?"

"Jack can take care of himself," Rose said quickly. "He's a 51st century guy. Not like us. And if you've been with the Doctor for a year now, you should know that this isn't always simple and easy. Sometimes..." She took a deep breath and shrugged. "Sometimes you don't know. Sometimes you don't want to know. The Doctor really doesn't like to talk about Jack." She glanced away for a second, then she looked back at Martha and smiled. "I wouldn't let the Doctor abandon you in Aberdeen. Forget about the Forth Human Empire."

"Why would he leave me in Aberdeen?" Martha asked. "I'm from London."

Rose shrugged. "And that's why he's not going to." She worried her lower lip between her teeth. "Did you take good care of the Doctor while I was gone?"

"The best I possibly could," Martha said, smiling slightly. "Saved his life a few times."

"I'll bet you did!" Rose laughed. "He seems to need that a lot." She squeezed Martha's shoulder. "Thank you. Really. Tell me what all I've missed. What was your favourite thing?"

"Shakespeare," Martha said quickly.

"You met Shakespeare?"

"Yeah, and he was being attacked by three witches! Isn't that just the most ridiculous thing?"

Rose laughed. "I met Dickens. Surrounded by ghosts."

Martha grinned. "Daleks in Manhattan."

"Daleks in Utah."

"My sister's boss mutated into a monster."

"The Doctor and I were banished by Queen Victoria."

"The Doctor and I were nearly beheaded by Queen Elizabeth I! Or at least he was! I don't know what would have happened to me if we'd been caught!"

Rose laughed. "I love these conversations!" She shook her head and smiled at Martha. "Some things never change."

"It's completely mad and the most terrifying thing ever."

"Here you are, though."

Martha shook her head. "We've been trapped... twice. In 1913 and in 1965. A couple of months in both places. And I was working these dull jobs, and some of the people were just..." She shook her head. "Well, you try being a black woman in 1913. But sometimes when it got really bad, I'd just sit down at night, and I'd think 'I've been to space. I've met aliens. I've met Shakespeare.' And this was in a time when the moon landing was science fiction. I'd seen things that no one around me could imagine. I'd seen things that no one at home could imagine." She looked up at Rose. "And it's the most incredible feeling in the world, isn't it?"

Rose nodded. "It changes you."

"Oh, it does!"

"It makes you want to be... so much better. You beat all of these impossible challenges and it's like you're seeing yourself and everything you could become for the first time in your life."

"It's like you're seeing who you really are for the first time in your life!" They were so close to each other now, one set of brown eyes staring right into the other, smiling even as Martha's tears dried out her face.

Martha glanced down and softened her smile a bit. "Awful for your relationship with your mother, though."

Rose laughed. "You too?"

"She's just worried about me," Martha said with a shrug. "I'm spending the night with a strange man and rushing into all sorts of danger. I'm lucky I haven't turned up with any weird injuries yet."

"We could fix you up if you did," Rose said. "In the 51st century, they had these nanogenes. They'd fix anything."

"Now that's something I'd like to see!" Martha said. "Medical advances! I can get him to take me to any Harry Potter event I want, but he's awful shy around hospitals, for a Doctor."

Rose rolled her eyes. "You haven't been indulging his Harry Potter obsession?"

"It's hardly an obsession!" But Rose's eyes were already on Martha's new collection, and Martha knew she'd lost the argument. "We talk about itonce in a while. We'll probably talk about it more as I read through the last book. And it's sort of been an inside joke ever since Shakespeare."

Rose raised an eyebrow.

Martha thought about explaining, but quickly decided against it. There wasn't really any way of explaining it that didn't sound ridiculous. "What? You don't like Harry Potter?"

Rose shook her head, but she at least had propriety to look guilty as she did so.

"That's it," Martha said, throwing up her hands. "We can't be friends."

"Shut up," Rose said. "We already are."

Martha couldn't argue with her.


End file.
